Port Huron - "Good morning, sailors! It's race day. Rise and shine," a voice booms out of loud speakers lining the Black River, where about 275 sailboats almost fill every inch of the docking area.

It's about 8:15 a.m. on Saturday and the sun's shining down brightly through a pure blue sky as a Bayview Yacht Club community member bellows his wake-up call and 2003 MSU graduate Dan Lorenz arrives in Port Huron to sail his fifth Bacardi Bayview Mackinac Yacht Race - the largest freshwater sailing contest in the world for the 79th year. The Detroit-based Bayview Yacht Club hosts the event.

The walkways along the river slowly start to come to life as sailboat well-wishers come to say farewell to sailors who hustle to get last-minute items loaded onto their boats.

Lorenz comes back to his dock with dry ice to stock on the Carinthia, a 40-foot J120 boat, on which he will be a part of a 10-member crew. He's just two hours away from embarking on about a two-day voyage to Mackinac Island as he runs into crew member Mike Henk, a 1985 MSU graduate.

"Ready to go, skipper?" Henk asks Lorenz as he passes him on the dock clad in a gray Carinthia T-shirt with J120 in big print on the back. "Yup," Lorenz says, smiling and giving a little laugh.

Having packed only the essentials - warm clothes, lifeguard sailing shoes, a raincoat and food - Lorenz says he's ready to take on Lake Huron, but he is not getting overly excited before the gun fires off, officially marking the race's start.

"You know it's going to be two days," Lorenz said. "Sometimes you're at a dead stop because there's no wind, and you have to deal with that."

But once he gets into the wide-open, wind-filled lake, he says helming is his favorite part of sailing.

"I kind of feel like it's one of the most important things on the boat," Lorenz said. "You have to constantly hold the wheel, and 1 or 2 degrees makes a big difference for the outcome of the race."

Henk's crew is sailing the Southhampton course that jets up toward Canada and from there it's a straight shot toward the Mackinac Island finish - a 253-nautical mile trip. A nautical mile is 6,080 feet.

The boat's owner, Frank Kern III of Grosse Point Park, is sailing in the race for the 25th time, placing him on the list of Old Goats next year, a listing of sailors who have raced at least 25 times.

Lorenz and Henk have sailed the race together for three years, and say the crew works well together. That doesn't always happen when family members sail together, Lorenz said as his dad, Dave Lorenz, came strolling down the walkway to wish his son good luck.

"I want to go one way and he wants to go another," Dave Lorenz chimed in. "Unfortunately, there's no parent-child relationship when out sailing. Once you get in a boat, it's equal playing field."

Dave Lorenz, a Livonia resident, is sailing the Shore course, a 204-nautical mile trip along Michigan's coastline on the sailboat Roguish, a 30-footer.

Like his son, Dave Lorenz doesn't own the boat he's sailing on, but rather he is a part of the crew, which allows him to avoid sailboat upkeep expenses.

"People need crew. They really need crew," he said, explaining that the sails alone on the 30-foot boat he's racing cost an upward of $10,000.

Henk and Dan Lorenz say they learned how to sail without big expenses by joining MSU's Sailing Club and MSU's Sailing Team. MSU teaches sailing techniques with Flying Juniors, 14-foot sailboats. There also is Great Lakes Sailing, a one-credit fall and summer sailing course offered at MSU.

"It was a great experience," Henk said. "I came right out of college knowing how to sail big boats."

Carinthia made its way down the Black River to the St. Claire and passed under the Blue Water Bridge to get to Lake Huron and its starting point about 4.5 miles north of the bridge.

Two anchored orange markers distinguished the start line, as a fleet of nine J120's lined up anticipating the gun-signal start.

The gun fired and a puff of smoke lifted from the community boat as Carinthia crew quickly worked together to put up the spinnaker, catch the wind and sail off into the horizon toward Mackinac Island, where sailors cram into the Pink Pony, a bar and restaurant for a "pretty serious party," Kern said.

To see the sailboats' finish go to Bayview's Web site and view its Web camera, www.byc.com. The Carinthia is predicted to arrive today.

Alison Barker can be reached at barkera6@msu.edu.